People Director

About Bretton AI

Bretton is building the agentic AI platform that runs the financial back office: one platform where teams at financial institutions can configure, deploy, and run AI agents for any workflow across compliance, risk, fraud, and operations. The same way Harvey became the agentic AI layer for the legal industry, Bretton is the system of action for financial back office teams. Companies like Kraken, Mercury, and Gusto trust us to automate mission-critical work, starting with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing investigations.

We've raised over $95M from Greylock, Y Combinator, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and other top-tier investors. We're based in downtown San Francisco and our team comes from world-class organizations like SpaceX, Google, Netflix, Stripe, Plaid, and more.
The Role

This is our first People hire. We're 50 people, post-Series B, and at the stage where the informal systems that got us here are starting to show their limits. Culture is strong, but onboarding is patchy, policies are undocumented, comp is ad hoc, and we don't yet have the infrastructure to scale a team intentionally.

You'll fix that. You're a strong recruiter, and also the person who builds the operating system underneath: comp and leveling, benefits, HR ops, onboarding, policies, and the rhythms that make a distributed team feel connected.

This is a hands-on, builder role. You'll own the roadmap, execute it yourself, and grow the function as the company scales around you.
What You'll Do
People Strategy

• Be a thought partner to the C Suite and Leadership Team on the people calls that matter at this stage.

• Translate company strategy and growth plans into a clear People roadmap.
• Partner on organizational design, headcount planning, leveling, and talent decisions.
• Embed AI tools and agents sensibly across hiring, onboarding, performance, and people ops where relevant, using AI to generate efficiencies and help us move faster

Recruiting & Talent

• Own our talent acquisition strategy end-to-end: deciding whether to use vendors, process design, candidate experience, and closing.
• Partner with hiring managers to define roles, build structured interview processes, and make fast, high-quality hiring decisions.
• Utilize the Leadership Team to build the employer brand and talent pipeline that lets us compete for exceptional people against larger, better-known companies.

Performance & Development

• Build a manager training program consistent with our size of business and speed of execution.
• Design and run our performance cycle: goal setting, reviews, calibration, leveling and career frameworks.
• Coach managers on performance management, PIPs, and difficult conversations, aligned to our values.

Compensation & Benefits

• Design and lead our compensation strategy, including leveling, equity best practices, and total rewards that are fair, transparent, and defensible as we grow.
• Review and update our benefits package and communicate changes clearly to the team.

People Operations & HR Infrastructure

• Own HRIS, payroll, employee data, handbook, and policies; make build/buy/PEO calls on our people stack
• Own HR operations: onboarding/offboarding, employee records and compliance (including SOC 2-aligned offboarding).
• Stand up or improve the tools and systems that underpin People ops (HRIS, ATS, handbook tooling, etc.).

Culture & Employee Experience

• Design and run our team rhythms: All Hands (in-person and remote), quarterly events, and our annual offsite.
• Continue to develop how we make remote employees feel embedded as part of the team, including office AV infrastructure and the appropriate regular team thythms
• Be the connective tissue between leadership and the team, surfacing what people need and helping the company respond well.
• Own the Employee Handbook and keep it alive: policies people can actually find, understand, and trust.

What We're Looking For
Must-Haves

• 5+ years in People/HR roles at a high-growth startup (Series B+).
• Recruitment experience - you've personally sourced and closed hard-to-fill roles and you know what good hiring looks like in practice.
• Proven experience building People infrastructure from scratch: comp frameworks, onboarding programs, policies, handbooks.
• Operationally sharp: you can design a process, document it, implement it, and make it stick without a team behind you.
• High EQ and sound judgment - people trust you with hard things.
• Based in San Francisco (or willingness to relocate).

Bonus Points

• Experience in fintech, regtech, or other compliance-adjacent environments.
• Familiarity with SOC 2 requirements as they relate to HR ops and offboarding.
• Experience running distributed team programs like remote All Hands and offsites.
• Comfort with tools like Rippling, Ashby, Notion, or similar People/HR platforms.

Why You'll Love Working Here

• Ownership from day one . We're looking for a leader who can jump in and lead our mighty people team of 2, building all our processes (mostly from scratch). The culture and systems you create will shape how Bretton operates for years.
• Direct access and real influence . You'll report to the COO and work closely with the CEO and COO on every people decision that matters.
• A clear path to grow . As we scale, so will this role - you're the first hire, not the last.
• A company that's already working . We have revenue, strong investors, and a team that genuinely wants to be here. You're joining a real business, not a bet.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary + meaningful equity
• Comprehensive healthcare, 401k matching, commuter benefits
• Unlimited PTO + holidays, unlimited sick days
• Flexible leave options
• Working late? We've got you covered with DoorDash and an Uber home